A seasoned deal lawyer and law practice innovator, SJ couples deep technical transactional and general corporate counsel experience with a commitment to continuous improvement and operational excellence in the delivery of legal services.
The first 20 years of SJ’s legal career, combined with his own entrepreneurial activities and passion for innovation, shaped him into a dynamic lawyer who serves as a trusted adviser to clients and a reliable source for colleagues.
SJ’s deep technical capabilities range from leading complex middle market M&A transactions; to leading corporate equity and debt finance and recapitalization transactions on a regular basis, including seed financing and venture capital transactions for emerging and growth stage companies; to advising closed-end private equity and venture capital funds on formation, corporate governance, exempted securities, and portfolio transaction matters.
SJ’s decades of experience “in the trenches” with private companies, entrepreneurs, and investors across numerous industries also enable him to help clients efficiently and effectively analyze, strategize, and resolve a variety of company management issues, including business structure and governance matters, contracts, and disputes. His early career experience with cross-border M&A and project finance transactions having a nexus between Florida, Latin America and the Caribbean, when he often worked in the Spanish and Portuguese languages, also primed SJ to be able to navigate multi-jurisdictional matters, both inbound and outbound, effectively.
In short, SJ’s experience and modus operandi make him the quintessential primary outside counsel for clients, many of whom have no legal office—or only a very small in-house team—of their own. Clients appreciate SJ’s holistic approach to matters and his ability to assimilate and synthesize important business information quickly to provide practical and focused advice that fits their unique business needs.
Many of the clients SJ serves are focused on innovative technologies, products, services, and processes, especially in the artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, blockchain, renewables, aerospace and avionics, insurance, financial services, real estate, construction, consumer goods, food and beverage, and entertainment industries. This concentration complements SJ’s own interests and natural tendencies as a committed student of process improvement and change management in law practice, constantly scouting for new and better ways to serve clients and collaborate with colleagues.